We
began the year with a banking crisis and ended it with our entire public
culture on the brink of bankruptcy

IF A PHRASE can sum up Ireland in 2010, it is the title of Alan Moloney’s brilliant online political comic:
Wheel Spinning, Hamster Dead .

The wheel of events was turning
ever faster, as one unprecedented occurrence followed another. Things
spun so dizzily out of control that time seemed to speed up into a blur.

Last January already seems a very long way away: things that were still
unimaginable back then have not just come to pass, but have been
accepted as the new normality.

But if we were to go further and
compress the year into a single word, it would have to be something
weird and exotic.

The Tibetan Buddhist term “bardo” comes to mind. It is
the state of being stuck between two earthly lives, one existence over,
the other not yet begun. In this state, apparently, the soul is subject
to great depression and terrifying hallucinations.

We lived in
bardoland.

To borrow a phrase from Antonio Gramsci, “the old was dying
but the new could not yet be born”.

A whole public culture – political,
administrative, moral – had lost the last vestiges of its capacity to
command credibility or respect. The desire for something to take its
place, however powerfully felt, had not yet taken any clear form.

These
two notions – a sense of time being speeded up and a sense of being
stuck in doldrums of depression – are, of course, contradictory.

But so
was Ireland itself.

The contradiction might be explained by the
relationship of most Irish people to the idea of living in historic
times. 2010 was undoubtedly a historic year, one of the most significant
since the foundation of the State.

But it felt, not that we were making
history, but that history was happening to us.

There have been
three periods in the last century when Ireland could be said to have
mattered on the international stage.

The struggle for independence was
one – it resonated throughout the still-vast British empire.

The period
from 1995 to 2007 was another – the co-incidence of the peace process
and the Celtic Tiger made it look like Ireland was providing a model to
be emulated in other conflicts and other economies.

And the third
period in which Ireland transcended its natural position as a small and
marginal place is the one we are living through now.

This time, however,
the significance is entirely negative.

It may be a bit of leap to look
at Bertie Ahern’s humble base of operations, St Luke’s in Drumcondra,
and imagine a blue plaque on the side: “From this house began the
sequence of events that led to the collapse of the European Union in
2012”.

But the notion is not entirely whimsical.

In 2008 and 2009, we
learned the consequences of petty Irish gombeen politics for Ireland.

In
2010, we learned that they have consequences for Europe.

It is not
quite the kind of global significance our patriots dreamed of.

The
idea that Ireland could unravel the euro and hence threaten the EU
itself might, rather perversely, have given the Government some real
bargaining power: save us or we bring the house down.

Unfortunately, by
the time the crisis came to the boil, the State itself seemed to have
lost the will to live.

The spectacle of the Two Stooges (Dermot Ahern
and Noel Dempsey, who both later declared their intention to shuffle off
the stage) telling the world that rumours of a bailout were a “fiction”
merely confirmed the impression of utter haplessness.

Under the
care of the Two Brians, Ireland felt like a patient who went into
hospital for a hip replacement and ended up needing a heart transplant.

The Government had an uncannily cack-handed ability to make bad
situations worse, transforming a banking crisis into a sovereign-debt
crisis and a sovereign-debt crisis into a genuine crisis of Irish
democracy.

What began with Seanie and Fingers and Bertie and Charlie
ended up with Ajai Chopra and Olli Rehn.

What began with delusions of
grandeur ended up with humiliation and powerlessness.

The fall was in
direct proportion to the overweening pride.

There was something
weirdly symbolic about the way the Irish passport itself made the news:
the revelation that Israeli intelligence had used forged Irish passports
in carrying out a murder, the long queues at the passport office in
March and the 40,000 backlog of applicants.

If a passport is a symbol of
sovereignty, ours were becoming symbols of fraud and failure.

This
was also the year when the absurdities of Irish politics ceased to be
entertaining. Everywhere one looked, there were instances of an entire
political culture in chaos.

George Lee’s decision to walk away from the
27,000 people who had voted for him in the Dublin South by election.

The
botched coup against Enda Kenny in which no one even pretended that any
ideas were at stake, and the main concern seemed to be the divvying up
of the spoils of a victory that was assumed to be inevitable.

Willie
O’Dea’s resignation after he urged a journalist to ask an opponent
whether “the brothel is still closed”.

Trevor Sargent, long seen as the
epitome of the political idealist, resigning because, like a classic
clientilist hack, he had urged gardaí to drop a case against a
constituent.

And, of course, Brian Cowen’s invention of a new euphemism
(“hoarse and congested”).

In previous years, many of these stories would
have added to the gaiety of the nation.

This year, they added to the
nation’s very public implosion.

In the wider culture, too, there
were reminders that all heroes have clay feet.

Gerry Ryan’s death in
April produced genuine grief and loss and heartfelt tributes to his
brilliance as a broadcaster. His inquest in December revealed the man
behind the public façade – anxious, indebted, stressed-out, leaning on
alcohol and cocaine to get him through the week – to be in an unhappy
way even closer to his listeners than most of them can ever have
imagined.

One of the few people everybody seemed to agree is a
saint, a gentleman and a national treasure is Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh –
and he was leaving us with that saddest of thoughts: you don’t know
what you’ve got till it’s gone.

The depth of the malaise was
revealed nowhere more clearly than in the public attitude to the
intervention of the IMF and European Union.

If, a decade ago, anyone had
suggested that a substantial part of the population would be glad to
see a Brussels-based Finn and a Washington-based Indian take charge of
“independent” Ireland, the assumption would have been that magic
mushrooms were doing their worst.

There was in fact a sense of relief
(enhanced by the contrast between our ministers’ fleets of black
chauffeur-driven limos and Mr Chopra’s ability to hail taxis and,
astonishingly, actually walk on the ground).

It was cruelly illusory –
the bailout had very little to do with saving Ireland and everything to
do with saving the euro and European banks.

But the desire to see the
Bogeyman as Santa Claus did reveal the depth of Irish people’s contempt
for their own institutions.

The ease with which the Republic was
surrendered pointed, perhaps, to a widespread belief that it did not
really exist.

And this belief was not just about money.

If we looked
beyond the fiscal humiliation for a source of collective pride in our
republic, it was not easy to find.

How well, for example, had the
State lived up to the first two priorities set by the democratic
programme of the First Dáil in 1919?

The first was “to make provision
for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children”.

The
reverberations from the Murphy report into the abuse of children by
Catholic priests in the Dublin archdiocese continued to sound throughout
the year, coming to the surface again in the horrific story of Tony
Walsh and those who repeatedly let him loose on children.

We
learned that an extra 27,000 children were pitched into consistent
poverty in 2009 – a number that is likely to have risen sharply in 2010.

Children make up 26 per cent of the population but 42 per cent of those are in consistent poverty.

The
names of Tracey Fay and Daniel McAnaspie emerged from the obscurity of
anonymous abandonment.

The revelation in April that at least 37 children
had died in State care since 2000, seemed shocking.

But it got
much worse, as the figure was revised upwards to 188 and then to 199.

Not only had these children died while being minded by the HSE (109 of
them from “unnatural causes”) but the State seemed incapable of even
enumerating them.

Not only were they not names, they were hardly even
numbers.

The collapse of Ireland’s performance in the literacy of
15-year-olds (from fifth to 17th place in the OECD) told a similar
story.

And the second duty of the Republic, according to the
democratic programme?

To develop a “sympathetic native scheme for the
care of the Nation’s aged and infirm”.

Prime Time’s reports on Alzheimer’s care (in May) and on the
lack of standards for home care of the elderly (in December) raised
uncomfortable questions about the degree to which those promises had
been kept.

All of this served to underline the degree to which the
political project that had emerged from the early 20th century – the
creation of a successful republic whose fate would forever be in its own
hands – had run its course.

The State that was the concrete
expression of that project had lost the capacity to command the trust
and confidence of its citizens.

Its credit (both financial and moral)
had been gambled on the banks.

In 2010, it became amply clear that the
gambler was compulsive and desperate, upping the stakes again and again
in an attempt to recoup past losses.

If there was any upside to this spectacle, it was the loss of all illusions.

Sport
and pop culture – the usual outlets for escapism – didn’t help very
much as we watched the World Cup we were not at and The X-Factor final
that Mary Byrne didn’t make.

It was striking that, unlike in the 1980s,
even religious visions didn’t provide much consolation.

Joe Coleman had
his moments, with his claims of personal messages from the Virgin Mary
at Knock Shrine, but it was a passing phenomenon.

The intervention we
looked for was not divine.

It came from quiet men with briefcases rather
than from supernatural forces.

And it was not the answer to our
prayers.

There is something to be said for disillusion, however.

This time, Romantic Ireland really is dead and gone, and given where our
grand delusions got us, that may not be a bad thing.

We will go into a new year, blinking in the harsh light of reality but knowing that we have little choice but to begin again.

The Diocese of Down and Connor has welcomed back a priest who left ministry in 1973 to be married.

In a ceremony on the fourth Sunday of Advent at the weekend, Bishop
Noel Treanor officiated at the re-admission of Fr Michael McConville,
almost 50 years after his original ordination in 1961.

Having studied for the priesthood in St Patrick's College, Carlow, Fr
Michael ministered in Down and Connor for 12 years before applying to
leave in order to marry Imelda Byrne, which he did in 1975, having three
children in the years to Imelda's death in 1981.

Very actively involved in his parish and diocese in the intervening
years, including the annual Lourdes pilgrimage as a volunteer with the
Brancardier team, Michael's application to re-enter ministry was made
possible through a petition for priestly reintegration presented by the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and which was approved by
Pope Benedict.

In the interim, Michael assisted in pastoral work at St Patrick's
parish in Belfast and engaged with a formation course at All Hallows in
Dublin.

Leading the ceremony for Fr Michael at the Oratory of Nazareth Care
Village in Belfast, Bishop Treanor said: ''I rejoice at Michael
McConville's decision. I wish him many years of fruitful service in the
Diocese, every happiness and blessing in his ministry.''

Was it for this that I broke the habit of years and accepted the Guardian's invitation to listen to Thought for the Day?

Was it for this that the BBC, including the director general himself,
no less, spent months negotiating with the Vatican?

What on earth were
they negotiating about, if all that emerged was the damp, faltering squib we have just strained our ears to hear?

We've already had what little apology we are going to get (none
in most cases) for the raped children, the Aids-sufferers in Africa,
the centuries spent attacking Jews, science, women and "heretics", the
indulgences and more modern (and tax-deductible) methods of fleecing the
gullible to build the Vatican's vast fortune.

So, no surprise that
these weren't mentioned. But there's something else for which the pope
should go to confession, and it's arguably the nastiest of all.

I refer
to the main doctrine of Christian theology itself, which was the
centrepiece of what Ratzinger actually did say in his Thought for the
Day.

"Christ destroyed death forever and restored life by means of his shameful death on the Cross."

More
shameful than the death itself is the Christian theory that it was
necessary.

It was necessary because all humans are born in sin.

Every
tiny baby, too young to have a deed or a thought, is riddled with sin:
original sin.

Here's Thomas Aquinas:

". . . the original sin of all men was in Adam indeed, as in its principal cause, according to the words of the Apostle (Romans 5:12): "In whom all have sinned":
whereas it is in the bodily semen, as in its instrumental cause,
since it is by the active power of the semen that original sin together
with human nature is transmitted to the child."

Adam
(who never existed) bequeathed his "sin" in his bodily semen (charming
notion) to all of humanity.

That sin, with which every newborn baby is
hideously stained (another charming notion), was so terrible that it
could be forgiven only through the blood sacrifice of a scapegoat.

But
no ordinary scapegoat would do.

The sin of humanity was so great that
the only adequate sacrificial victim was God himself.

That's
right.

The creator of the universe, sublime inventor of mathematics, of
relativistic space-time, of quarks and quanta, of life itself, Almighty
God, who reads our every thought and hears our every prayer, omniscient,
omnipotent, omnipresent God couldn't think of a better way to forgive
us than to have himself tortured and executed.

For heaven's sake, if he
wanted to forgive us, why didn't he just forgive us?

Who, after all,
needed to be impressed by the blood and the agony?

Nobody but himself.

Ratzinger
has much to confess in his own conduct, as cardinal and pope.

But he is
also guilty of promoting one of the most repugnant ideas ever to occur
to a human mind: "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness"
(Hebrews 9:22).

Ice sparkles in the sunlight and there are icicles dangling from St
Anne’s Cathedral.

Before the steps of the imposing Cathedral stands a
man draped in black, freezing, but cheerfully accepting donations
from passers-by.

This is the Dean of St Anne’s, the Very Rev Houston McKelvey.

And this is his final year acting as the ‘Black Santa’, following on from a tradition started in 1973 by Dean Sammy Crooks.

Dean Crooks had concerns about the ‘expensive but necessary’ work being
done to the Cathedral, and decided to stand at the Cathedral
entrance on Donegall street to beg for the poor and charities.

The press coined the phrase ‘Black Santa’ because of the black Anglican clerical cloak he wore as he stood by the steps.

Set to retire in 2011, Rev Houston McKelvey’s thoughts turn to his time
as Dean, his role as Black Santa and his life before entering the
Church.

He studied at Royal Belfast Academical Institution, before completing
an honours degree in Geography at Queens University, then studied
theology at Trinity College.

Dean McKelvey was ordained in 1967.

The Very Rev McKelvey is not ignorant of the work of journalists,
having worked as one for a short time while at Queens University. He
writes for the Church of Ireland Weekly Gazette and St Anne's
produces its own monthly magazine.

He is married to Roberta and they have one son, John, who lives and works in America.

He said: “I came to St Anne’s 10 years ago. I succeeded the Very Rev Jack Shearer.

“I suppose, amongst the highlights of my time here, the visit of the
Queen and the Duke of York in the Jubilee year rates highly.”

Apart from the annual Black Santa appeal, he has been moved by the
generosity of the people of Belfast when faced with the suffering of
others — notably after the devastating tsunami which hit Indonesia in
2004 and claimed an estimated 230,000 lives.

Dr McKelvey organised a special collection that year.

“In about nine days the people of this community gave £1.6m.

“We’ll never forget the sight of people on Donegall street coming out of the rain and giving money,” he added.

He has also enjoyed developing friendships across the divide in Northern Ireland.

“One of the best things about St Anne’s is the partnership we have with
St Peter’s Catholic Cathedral and the friendship I’ve enjoyed with
Monsignor Tom Toner and Dr Hugh Kennedy,” he said.

We retire to his office to thaw out for a bit and Dr McKelvey quips:
“If I had known what the weather would be like this year I’d have
retired last year.

“At least it hasn’t rained but it is very cold. You really need a sense of humour for this weather,” he added.

Of the Black Santa appeal, he said: “The good thing about the Black
Santa sit out is that while it takes place outside a Church of
Ireland Cathedral, it is owned by all of the community.

“Each year we bring in between £220,000 and £250,000 and that is
distributed among a wide range of charities and community groups who
deal with the young, the elderly, medical research and medical
support.

“By tradition, at the beginning of our Christmas service ‘Nine lessons
on carols’ we give a cheque to the Christian Aid charity, which is
usually a minimum of £20,000.

“The donations come from individuals, schools, businesses and churches, but it is a team effort.

“We have a good team of volunteers at the Cathedral who help in
counting the donations, setting up gift aid and dealing with tax.

“Two Bishops and cannons together with former clerical members of staff
stand at the barrel to collect donations,” he added.

“Cheques are usually given on the first Sunday in February at our ‘Good
Samaritans’ service, when representatives of community groups and
charities are present,” he said.

“The stained glass window of the Cathedral shows the parable of the Good Samaritan and I’ve always been impressed by the quality of people who come along on that day.

“I believe there is more involved than simply a cheque: there is a
recognition of the effort and contribution their effort makes to the
community.”

He said of his life as a member of the clergy: “I was ordained in 1967.
From 1967 to 1970 I was the curate assistant in Dunmurry.

“The Bishop sent me to Seymour Hill where there was a church extension project and a church to be consecrated.

“I had 14 years or so there, and following that I served as secretary
|of the General Synod Board of Education for Northern Ireland.

“In that role I was |responsible for advising the church on matters of
education and the church’s response to government policy.

“We established links with the Presbyterian church and the Catholic
church. Together, we sponsored the common program in religious
education.

“Within my church, with the help of Archbishop Robin Eames who was on
the Church Board of Education, we played a leading role in child
protection policy,” he added.

His retirement, he hopes, will bring respite from the cold.

“I want to see a little sunshine in January,” he shivered.

He added: “I have been working on a website, it’s a project I started
while in the church and will take me into my retirement.

“It was started for church news and for church leaders, the website is www.churchnewsireland.org and brings news from the home countries and
worldwide into one website for ease.

Five thousand “little singers” lifted spirits in the Vatican Thursday with
the pure notes of Christmas carols new and old, delighting Pope Benedict
XVI who greeted them in the Paul VI audience hall.

They are the boys
and girls of the International Pueri Cantores Federation, ranging in age from 7 to 17, who had come to Rome to sing and pray for peace this Christmas.

Greeting
them in eight languages, from English to Russian, Pope Benedict XVI
said that seeking the right notes and words to sing to God means
bringing a little bit of Heaven to those who listen.

The Pueri Cantores is a federation of children’s choirs dedicated to sacred music.

He
told them “Always remember that your singing is a service. Firstly, it
is a service to God, a way of giving him the praise that is due. It is
also a service to your fellow worshippers, helping them to raise their
hearts and minds to the Lord in prayer. And it is a service to the
whole Church, offering a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy that is the
goal of all true worship, when the choirs of angels and saints unite in
one unending song of love and praise”.

The full text of the Pope’s greeting:

Dear young members of the Pueri Cantores Federation,

Dear Friends,

I
am pleased to welcome you today as you celebrate your thirty-sixth
International Congress here in Rome and I thank you for the commitment
you have shown to the apostolate of choral singing in the liturgy.

In
Saint Augustine’s words: “singing is an expression of joy and … love” (Sermo
34:1).

As you use your talents and your faith to sing God’s praises,
you give voice to the natural desire of every human being to glorify
him, with songs of love. It is hard to find words to convey the sheer
joy of the soul’s loving encounter with God, indeed the great mystics
could only remain silent before the mystery.

Yet beautiful music is
able to express something of the mystery of God’s love for us and ours
for him, as we are reminded by the theme chosen for your Congress, Deus Caritas Est.

Always
remember that your singing is a service.

Firstly, it is a service to
God, a way of giving him the praise that is due. It is also a service
to your fellow worshippers, helping them to raise their hearts and minds
to the Lord in prayer.

And it is a service to the whole Church,
offering a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy that is the goal of all
true worship, when the choirs of angels and saints unite in one unending
song of love and praise.

I greet especially the groups present
today from the United States, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia and South Korea.

I
encourage you to persevere in your good work, I assure you of my
prayers, and I gladly invoke upon you God’s abundant blessings.

THE VATICAN must “face the facts” about religious freedom in China,
the foreign ministry said in the first official reaction to the pope’s
Christmas Day Urbi et Orbi message condemning the persecution of Chinese
Catholics.

Pope Benedict denounced limits on freedom of worship in China and encouraged Catholics here to persevere.

“We
hope the Vatican can face the facts of China’s religious freedom and
the development of Catholicism in China and take concrete actions to
promote positive conditions for China-Vatican relations,” foreign
ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference.

An editorial
in the English-language edition of the Global Times, run by Communist
Party organ the People’s Daily, said the pope had acted “more like a
western politician than a religious leader”, but this was the first
official commentary from Beijing.

Broadly speaking, relations
between Beijing and the Holy See have been poor since the communists
kicked foreign clergy out in the 1950s and severed ties with the
Vatican.

China’s officially atheist government requires that
Christians worship in state-registered churches, and China’s eight to 12
million Catholics are divided into official and unofficial camps.

Catholics
are required to join the official Chinese Catholic Patriotic
Association, set up eight years after the 1949 revolution, which has
five million members and which repeatedly angers Rome by naming bishops
without the Vatican’s approval.

On the other hand there is an
underground church wary of government ties.

The Vatican estimates about
eight million Chinese Catholics worship secretly in underground churches
not recognised by the government.

In recent years, under Pope
Benedict, relations have improved and disputes over appointments in
China’s official church have been avoided by quietly conferring on
candidates, which means that most state-approved bishops have a Vatican
blessing.

The policy of appointing religious leaders without
consulting with the titular heads of the religion in question is
something that the Chinese have also done with the Tibetan Buddhists.

The
current Panchen Lama, second in command in the Tibetan Buddhist
hierarchy, was appointed by the Chinese government after the Panchen
Lama named by the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, was
kidnapped.

Negotiations are ongoing to improve the status of the
Catholic Church in China, probably by no longer recognising Taiwan
diplomatically in favour of Beijing.

The Vatican is one of the few
countries in the world that gives diplomatic recognition to Taiwan,
which China considers a renegade province.

This is a key irritant to
relations between the Holy See and Beijing.

While relations tend to simmer, they do flare up every so often.

A
schism would be hugely difficult for Chinese Catholics, as they would
be forced to either ally themselves with the Vatican, and choose
underground worship, or tie themselves to the patriotic association,
which could involve excommunication.

Documents available at the National Archives
from today also demonstrate how, as part of the propaganda war against
the republican protest, UK embassies were instructed to discover whether
prisoners around the world had to wear uniforms.

Even the releaxed
dress code of Liechtenstein's inmates was recorded.

The
Provisional IRA and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) members had
launched a hunger strike in the Maze prison with five demands for their
political status to be recognised, including the right not to wear a
uniform or do prison work.

In the run-up to the confrontation, the
Foreign Office asked diplomats to report on the use of uniforms in
other countries.

"The practice of wearing prison uniforms in Spanish
goals was discontinued," a diplomat in Madrid wrote.

In Italy,
prisoners dressed in "khaki-coloured suits".

In Austria, convicts had
uniforms "of quite good quality and by no means blatantly distinctive".

In Portugal, the suits, it was said, "would not attract attention since
[they were] the sort worn by the average labourer".

Swiss
criminals, the embassy in Berne noted, were not required to wear
uniforms and "the foregoing also applies to Liechtenstein".

Convicted
prisoners in Turkey were not obliged to wear prison uniforms, a diplomat
in Ankara added, "if only because the government does not provide any".

Secret cabinet minutes on 23
October record him proposing to issue a statement making clear "that the
government [was] in no circumstances prepared to grant special status
to the PIRA prisoners but that as part of the continuing process of
penal reform they were prepared to allow all prisoners to wear approved
civilian clothing.

"[Atkins] considered that a statement on those
lines would deprive the protesters of a great deal of public sympathy …
and would be better made now than at a later stage when it could be
presented as a surrender to the prisoners' action."

The prime
minister agreed but insisted that "once the government's position had
been made clear, no further concessions should be offered." Similar
comments – such as "We cannot make any concessions" – appear in the
margins of other cabinet documents on the hunger strike in Thatcher's
charcteristic blue felt pen.

The government's slight shift in
position did not deter the hunger strikers. Seven republican volunteers
in the H-Blocks refused food on 27 October 1980. A report sent to the
cabinet in early November warned that republican families "are very
willing for their kin to die for the cause".

There was also
disappointment in the cabinet that while "individual priests (such as Fr
Faul) are undoubtedly doing their best, the church is not being
particularly helpful. Cardinal O'Fiaich and Bishop Daly have not as yet
taken a very constructive line."

But there were plans to stiffen
the resolve of the Catholic church. Sir Mark Heath, the British
ambassador to the Vatican, had been summoned to convey a personal
message from the pope to the prime minister.

"I would ask you to
consider personally possible solution in order to avoid irreversible
consequences that could perhaps prove irreparable," the pope's letter to
Thatcher pleaded.

The ambassador added a covering note: "When I
asked what further practical steps he thought we could take in addition
to the concession on clothing, he was silent. [The pope] said that the
clergy would continue to urge the prisoners to give up their strike and
[that] the message was a personal one from the pope himself."

On
24 November the prime minister flew to Rome and met John Paul II. On her
return she penned a grateful letter.

"Your
wisdom and experience are of inestimable value to us all. I will
continue to reflect for a long time on what you said."

She
continued: "I and my colleagues in the government are firmly resolved
that it would be utterly wrong … to take any steps which could be
regarded as conceding that political motives can excuse murder or
serious crimes.

"In view of the sensitivy of the issue involved, I
have asked HM minister to the Holy See to seek an early opportuinity to
explain matters more fully to the cardinal secretary of state; and for
that purpose I am arranging for a senior official … in the Northern
ireland Office to go to Rome to assist Sir Mark Heath."

The prime
minister also told the pope: "You may be sure we very much welcome the
efforts of the clergy in Northern Ireland to persuade the prisoners both
to give up the strike and to end their protest; and I hope you will be
able to give full support to this objective."

In mid-December,
after a plea from Cardinal O'Fiaich as one of the hunger strikers
approached death, the protest was called off.

The recriminations soon
began; a second – and more deadly – hunger strike was launched the
following year.

The
letter went on: “That distress has been made even more acute by the
further allegation that your representations to Congressman Fish implied
that Fr Murray’s credibility was in question.”

Fr Faul accused
the Ambassador of the “attempted denigration” of Fr Murray and alleged
he had quoted the Grand Master of the Orange Order Martyn Smyth and
former SDLP leader Gerry Fitt.

He said: “That you should be
prepared to quote the opinions of the leader of Orangeism and of a
politician aptly described as ’going for the jugular’ of those whom he
disagrees, in order to discredit a Catholic priest in good standing in
his own diocese, would, if true, be gravely disturbing.”

In a
cover letter to Mr Lenihan, Fr Faul said he hoped the Ambassador “will
cease thwarting our efforts in the cause of justice and peace in the
north of Ireland”.

Mr Lenihan hit back insisting he had full confidence in Ambassador Donlon.

He stressed that the top diplomat had “not touched” on the Birmingham Six case during conversations with the Congressman.

“They
have been about the Congressman’s interest in promoting contacts
between elected representatives from both parts of Ireland and US.”

Fr
Faul offered the Ambassador a chance to respond but there is no
evidence in the file that he did. No further evidence was put forward by
the priests for the basis of the allegations.

The Birmingham Six
walked free from jail in 1991 after 16 years in jail when their
convictions for the murder of 21 people in two pubs were quashed by the
Court of Appeal.

Paddy Joe Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Richard
McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter, Billy Power and Johnny Walker, between them,
served 96 years for a crime they did not commit.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has been called on to help end a dispute between
a university and students who are continuing an occupation in protest at
rises in tuition fees.

The students have been staging a sit-in at the Senate building at the
University of Kent in Canterbury since December 8 and have remained there
throughout Christmas.

University officials aim to regain control of the building by seeking a
possession order at a hearing at Canterbury County Court on January 7.

But the five-strong group of students vowed to stay put indefinitely to
highlight their opposition to the rise in tuition fees and cuts in higher
education.

The students want the university and its vice-chancellor Julia Goodfellow to
condemn the Government's plans publicly.

They said their occupation was a reaction to Prof Goodfellow signing a letter,
published in the Daily Telegraph on December 8, endorsing a hike in tuition
fees.

Prof Goodfellow has since written an open letter in which she said she
deplored cuts to higher education funding, but the students said this did
not meet their demands.

The students have now written to the Archbishop, Rowan Williams, in the hope
that as a visitor to the university he will act as mediator to help resolve
the impasse.

No response has been received, one of the occupiers, 20-year-old philosophy
student Ben Stevenson, said today.

The occupiers said in a statement that the "savage cuts and substantial
rise in fees should not be under-estimated".

Their statement added: "We feel that education should be seen as a public
good and therefore a crucial investment, and that if education has to be
perceived as a commodity, then it is one of our last great exportable
commodities, and deserves to be protected.

"We oppose cuts that will result in university institutions being a
privilege accessible solely to the few.

"Our occupation is completely peaceful and we maintain consistency in our
objectives and feel this is imperative until our demands are met."

The students alleged that the heating was turned off during the cold weather,
that they have been unable to leave the building for fresh air and that
their internet connection has been cut.

People have been turning up with food donations for them and they have been
passing the time watching films and maintaining contact with supporters via
Twitter and Facebook using a 3G dongle.

The students intend to issue a letter to universities encouraging students and
staff to sign as a counter-measure to the letter signed by Prof Goodfellow
and other board members of Universities UK.

Their statement went on: "We have also been in contact with the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. Due to his capacity as Visitor to the University of Kent, we hope he may act
as mediator in our current dispute with the university administration."

Fellow campaigners at universities across the country, including Bristol,
University College London and Leeds, all staged occupations but most ended
after two weeks.

A candlelit vigil will be held at 5pm on January 1 outside the occupied Senate
building to show support for the protesters.

The students added: "Our university occupation is now officially the last
running in Great Britain and we are aiming to maintain action throughout the
Christmas and New Year period until we feel that our demands have been met.

"We stand in solidarity with all those who are fighting the cuts and will
stand behind those sectors of the society who feel the force of the
Government's austerity measures which are wholly unnecessary, as these
reforms will not just impact educational institutions but all areas of
welfare.

"The struggle against cuts is ongoing and this occupation is one form of
opposition to the Government's austerity measures.

"If the movement against cuts is to have any impact then it will need to be
diverse in its methods, dedicated to its aims and well coordinated between
the various sectors of society."

Nobody from the university was available for immediate comment today.

In a previously-issued statement, it said the university had sought to
establish common ground with the students.

As the students had indicated no intention to leave, they felt it necessary to
take legal action and seek a possession order through the courts.

The Senate building is due for essential maintenance work and will be needed
for university meetings after the Christmas closure, it added.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) received a welcome boost for
its Annual Appeal with an €1 million donation from ESB just before
Christmas.

“It will help make a real and valuable difference to families and
individuals who are struggling in these tough times. It will be used to
provide much needed basics for families to help them get through
Christmas and the remaining winter months,” said Mairead Bushnell, SVP
National President.

“ESB has a long history of working with SVP, with particular focus on
helping and advising consumers on staying well and warm over the winter
months.”

She said that the generous contribution reflects the great response
from the public to the 2010 Annual Appeal.

Calls for assistance to the
SVP this year have increased nationally by 35% and in some areas, calls
to regional offices are up 50%. In this context, she encouraged people
to continue to make much-needed donations as there are so many people in
need throughout the country.

Speaking about ESB’s donation, Liam Molloy, General Manager, ESB
Electric Ireland said, “In view of the particularly challenging times
that families and individuals are dealing with at the moment, ESB is
making an immediate contribution of €1 million to St. Vincent de Paul’s
Annual Appeal to help assist those in need. The current cold weather is
placing extra stress on families, especially so close to Christmas, so
we hope our contribution will provide some

further relief to those most
in need.”

The SVP Annual Appeal had another unusual donation just before
Christmas when toys and children’s presents arrived in Dublin from
students at the Saarland University in Germany.

Over 130 shoeboxes of
toys and gifts were delivered to the SVP National Office in Dublin from
the English Department at the German University.

The students and their Professor, Bert Hornback, were studying the
situation in Ireland and decided to make a contribution to an Irish
charity.

The delivery and collection was sponsored by the Irish-German
Fellowship, Saarland.

The New Year is getting off to a good start with Jam Café Bakery
Deli launching their inaugural 2011 charity calendar, with all proceeds
from sales going to SVP.

The chain has branches in Kenmare, Killarney,
Tralee and Cork

“I hope it will be the first of an annual fund raising project and
that it will win the support of our customers and friends and hopefully
deliver a nice fat cheque to St Vincent de Paul" said James Mulchrone
of Jam.

"We wanted to do something that would have immediate and local
impact. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is always a very worthy
charity and never more so than at this challenging time for everyone in
our community.”

Brendan Dempsey, Cork Regional President, SVP, welcomed the
initiative, in times when people are feeling the pinch and the stress
rates seem much higher.

“The general public and companies have been tremendous, the good will
is so obvious that we can’t remember a time when we received so many
calls offering help in one form or another, its appreciated and every
little helps,” he said.

The Jam Charity Calendars is available from any Jam Café, with a suggested donation of €4.50.